Dejan Bojkov: Chess Highways

4/10/2012 – The Bulgarian GM's third DVD for ChessBase isn't about openings, but instead aims to instruct amateur players on the power of queens, rooks and bishops in both the middle and endgame. 48 carefully selected games, all thoroughly explained. "The price of $39.95 might seem steep, compared to a book, but cheap for a 5½ hour lesson with a GM," writes IM John Donaldson in this review.

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Dejan
Bojkov: Chess Highways

Review by John Donaldson

William John Donaldson, 53, has been an IM since 1983, with two GM norms
under his belt. He is also an author, organizer, journalist and six-time captain
of the US team at chess Olympiads. In 2006 he was named USA Zone President
in FIDE. He is constantly writing and producing chess books, mostly biographies
of historical chess figures.

Bulgarian Grandmaster Dejan Bojkov’s third DVD for ChessBase differs
considerably from his first two which were devoted to teaching openings (the
Kalashnikov Variation of the Sicilian and the King’s Indian). This time
around, with Chess Highways, he aims to instruct amateur players on
the power of queens, rooks and bishops in both the middle and endgame.

The medium for teaching this material is 48 carefully selected games and positions
which are thoroughly explained. The mini-lessons run from roughly five to ten
minutes (running time for the DVD is 5 hours 38 minutes). Bojkov is well-prepared
and familiar with his material. Although English is not his native language
he is easy to understand and pleasant to listen to.

The examples are divided between classics and more recent games. Those of
a certain age are likely to remember the famous game Karpov-Unzicker, Nice (ol)
1974, which is featured here. The soon-to-be World Champion won a beautiful
encounter in which his control of the only open file played a pivotal role in
deciding the game.

The following example from the author’s practice, which is also featured,
drew inspiration from Karpov’s gem. Note this accompanying game replay
is an abridgement of the audio commentary.

Chess Highways should prove useful to two groups of amateur players. The first
is those who are starting, particularly young players who need a solid grounding
in the fundamentals. The second group who would benefit from the work are experienced
adult players who do better learning from DVDs than books.

The System requirements for this DVD are : Pentium-Processor at 300 Mhz or
higher, 64 MB RAM, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, DVD drive, mouse, soundcard.
It does not require Chess Base to run, instead using ChessBase Reader which
is provided.

The price of $39.95 might seem steep compared to a book but cheap for a 5½
hour lesson with a Grandmaster.

Video sample: Dejan Bojkov - Chess Highways

About the author

Born in 1977, Dejan Bojkov is a Bulgarian GM who qualified from the Sports
Academy of Sofia as a trainer, a profession which he has followed in various
countries. After his work as a trainer in Kavala (Greece), he was employed
ba ex Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova as her trainer.

Bojkov was champion of Bulgaria in 2009 and was a member of the Bulgarian
team at the European championships in 2009. In cooperation with Vladimir
Georgiev he has written "A Course in Chess Tactics" which appeared
as a Gambit publication in 2010.

GM Bojkov has also written more than 30 reports for the news pages chessbase.com
and chessbase.de. He has also produced a number of training DVDs, which
you will find here.

See also

3/27/2018 – Sergey Karjkin didn't succeed in posing serious problems for Ding Liren and after, what he called, a "terrible blunder", he had to scramble to save a draw. That left Caruana in great shape to win the tournament. Mamedyarov struggled to find winning chances with black against Kramnik, but in the end that game ended drawn as well. Caruana, needing only a draw, was in command against Grischuk and even won the game to finish in clear first by a full point! | Photo and drawings by World Chess

See also

1/28/2018 – Magnus Carlsen won the 80th Tata Steel Masters which was decided in a blitz tiebreak over Dutch number one Anish Giri. The players contested two blitz games with 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move, with no sudden death Armageddon game needed. Vidit played solidly to earn a draw that was enough to win the Challengers, as Korobov could not manage to pull off a win with black on-demand. | Photo: Alina l'Ami TataSteelChess.com

Video

The setup for White recommended by Valeri Lilov is solid and easy to play – the thematic moves are almost always the same ones: Nge2, 0-0, Bg5 (or Be3), Nd5, Qd2. Later, according to Black’s setup, things continue with f4 or even Rac1, b4 and play on the queenside. Starting with the classic Botvinnik-Spassky, Leiden 1970, the author describes this universally employable setup in 7 videos (+ intro and conclusion).

"Simple yet aggressive!" Enjoy this new exciting DVD by Simon Williams. Let the famouns Grandmaster from England show you how to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4).